The Mystery of History in a Co-op Setting

Would you like to use The Mystery of History in a co-op setting? Since the book is intentionally adaptable to teaching multiple ages, you will find many ways to plan lessons for your co-op.

The following ideas and questions will help you think through what you want to cover in your co-op class. Once you have decided what to cover, then you can decide whether a co-op license or co-op discount will work best.

Ideas for Teaching The Mystery of History in a Co-op Setting:

What is the goal for the co-op class?

Will it just be simply delivering the lesson content or will you keep grades?

Will it be project based, group activities, or individual activities?

Will you present all the information or require students to come to class having read the lesson?

For example, if you have 1 hour to teach 1st to 4th grade students and your goal is to supplement lessons taught at home, your schedule could include:

Go over the highlights of the lessons by doing a group review

Select one or two activities from the week to complete

Bring in an extra resource like a YouTube video or book

Wrap up class by doing map work or a timeline.

Another example, if you have 2 hours to teach 5th to 8th grade and you are not requiring students to do any work outside of class, your schedule could include:

Go over the pretest orally, then present the lesson information while students take notes on the notebooking pages

Ask follow-up questions or allow kids to offer narration of the material

Complete a few activities from the book, and if questions are research based assign them the week before so students can share their thoughts.

End class with the wrap activity or quiz

Co-op License or Co-op Discount:

Do you need a co-op license or a co-op discount? The size of your co-op and what you want to teach in co-op will determine which works best.

If you want every student to have their own copy of the book or material, a co-op discount would work best. The co-op discount gives you 30% off an order of 6 or more copies. The teacher can make copies without a license since each family has the material already.

If you are not requiring students to own the material, a co-op license gives the teacher privileges to copy material for students. Each co-op license is for 25 students and includes one copy of the material. If the material is a download, the co-op license is for the teacher only. The download should not be shared with the families.

Number crunching scenarios with co-op license and co-op discount.

Keep in mind that you can buy a co-op license just for the Companion Guide. If you present the material from the lessons and just want to copy pre-test, quizzes, and map work then a co-op license for the Companion Guide would be the best price.

A co-op license on The Mystery of History Volume 1 book would cost: $124.87. Keep in mind you will have to make copies of the book.

The website will automatically apply the co-op discount when you select a quantity of six or more. Then you can look at shipping costs. While the website will allow for Media Mail know that large boxes move slower in shipping and have a higher chance of damage.

Tracking Forms for The Mystery of History in a Co-op Setting:

To help make that job easier I created a form, Co-op Tracking Expenses * to help you keep track of who has paid. Could be used for supplies for the class, splitting up the cost of the license, or paying for the group book order.

* indicates required Email Address *

After you have decided what you are teaching, then you just need to gather money from parents to cover the costs of materials.

I would imagine if you are interested in reading this post you must be in planning mode for teaching The Mystery of History. Those days when you are scouring the internet looking for resources and ideas. I hope you find my post a useful timesaver.

Do to copyright you will find material from Bright Ideas Press to be lesson specific but freebies will be topic related. You can read more at the FAQ section on copyright at Bright Ideas Press.

Teaching with The Mystery of History Vol. I

First thing you need to decide are which components of The Mystery of History are you going to complete. Yes, that means you are not expected to do everything mentioned in the book. No, this is not an exhaustive list but it should keep you busy planning for awhile.

Online Class for The Mystery of History Volume III

This year I had my homeschool mom radar on high alert for opportunities to help me provide all the subjects needed by my students. After weighing the options, I decided on placing one student in the live version and one student in the self-paced.

A glimpse at how The Mystery of History high school years worked at my house and questions to ask yourself as you plan your high school history credits.

The Mystery of History High School Years

*Please note that different states have different requirements for establishing high school credits. Please check with your state requirements when planning. If your student is college bound then check requirements from colleges they are interested in attending.

The Mystery of History is a world history curriculum. Some states require 2 or 3 credits of world history, and 1 or 2 credits of American history. The big question becomes how do you take a 4 volume series add in the need for an American history credit and create a high school transcript. Combine that with the vastly different ways to document history credits and that leaves homeschool moms wondering the best way to construct their students’ transcripts.

I firmly believe that high school transcripts should reflect the strengths and interests of the students. I don’t think there is a one size fits all to planning high school history credits. You will notice that I also do not believe that every student needs an AP level course load for every subject.

For this blog post I have 4 students, who might happen to reflect my 4 children. I will describe their interests and goals and how they completed or will complete their history credits. I should also note that each child by the time they entered highschool was on their second rotation with MOH.

The Mystery of History High School Years: Student A

Student A is a science guy. He likes history but his goal is to graduate college and become a meteorologist. Since his course load requires classes like pre-calculus and physics, his time is limited for other classes.

Yes some families do MOH vol 1 and vol 2 in one year spending a semester on each volume. This works since the lessons are shorter. The Mystery of History vol 4 was not published while he was in high school but could be completed in the Senior year. In our state the requirements are 2 World History and 1 American history credit. Since his senior year was heavy in science he did not take another history credit.

The Mystery of History High School Years: Student B

When we begin something new, especially something with significant depth, we can anticipate an initial learning curve. New curriculum definitely falls under this category.

When the first activity of the new curriculum finds you overwhelmed…well it is important to find reinforcements.

I have had a few moms over a 6 month time period ask for help in completing the first activity and honestly after attempting a search on the Answer in Genesis website…I get the struggle. The AIG website is loaded with so much information it takes time to find what you are looking for.

If you are teaching the middle grades you might be looking for just the definitions. If you are teaching high school you are looking for more depth to the answers.

I would suggest starting with online sites for definitions. If your student is older or looking for more depth than read one of the articles in the list.

Instead of defining all the terms a student could do an article summary on a few of the terms.

While I do not approve of Wikipedia being a source for documenting in a paper it can be a good place to start your research.

It’s spring and I am trying to finish a school year and plan another…my brain is overwhelmed.

But has our school year comes to a close, I do like to look back and try to evaluate the successes and failures.

WARNING* Looking back to evaluate the school year might lead to an enormous amount of mom guilt. You might need a plan on dealing with it or else you will find yourself taking on a project…and I do not mean just an ordinary project.

We are near the end of The Mystery of History Volume IV and the content matter has been challenging to my younger kids. Thankfully I focused on exposure to the topics and not mastery of content. I do love exposure because you never know when a spark will light a passion for a new topic.

So when the spark for a new passion collides with the guilt of a mom who did not complete many projects with her kids over the school year…well this happens.

The Mystery of History volume 4 Spaceship

In the corner of my front yard now resides a spaceship! Thanks to the lesson of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

Why yes I did drag a huge tractor tire home that was found abandoned on the side of the road.

Then I spray painted it silver. I found an old trampoline frame and spray painted it silver too.

The old frame just happened to fit perfectly on top of the tire.

While shopping at the local garden center I found 2 Victorian gazing balls on clearance that really resemble planets when placed next to a spaceship.

I think sand makes the best ground cover for any planet you would like to visit. It is a great way to leave your footprints behind.

Do not forget to name your spaceship. Vinyl stickers finished our project on the US.Atlantis.

Now I am sure if there was an award for the most craziest, unusual, project to complete while studying The Mystery of History volume 4…I would win…or at least get honorable mention.

With my younger kids who struggle with different aspects of learning I have found writing to be at the bottom of our school list. I have decided to spend the last quarter of school focusing on writing while other subjects like math go into review mode. This is a method I do often when I feel we have not had enough time on certain subject.

Then I chose world history writing prompts to be the focus of our writing. We are using The Mystery of History Volume IV and this will be a great way for them to process the serious topics covered in the book.

I am timeline challenged. After 15 years of homeschooling we just completed our first time line. While I do think time lines are great learning chances, you can send your child to college without ever completing one. Since I have 9 more years of homeschooling, I am pacing myself.

My struggles with timelines:

Deciding where to put people on the line. Do you do it by birth date, death date or another date

Deciding which events to add.

Keeping track of the project for the whole school year.

Which method do you use; sewing board, poster board, notebook, or on the wall?

Now Grapevine Studies come in the notebook format. Personally I like to see the actual timeline all at once. I copied the odd number pages since the timeline was double sided. Then I had my boys cut out each scroll, complete the drawings, and tape them together to form one long timeline. [Read more…]

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